Giro d’Italia confirms Katusha as 23rd team for May’s race

UCI passes exemption for peloton of more than 200 after Russian team’s CAS appeal

RCS Sport, the organiser of the Giro d’Italia, has confirmed that Katusha will be officially be the 23rd team to line up at the Naples start on May 4th. Having originally been denied ProTeam registration for 2013, the Russian team looked set to miss a number of events in the WorldTour. Despite being invited to all RCS Sport’s other big races, Katusha was originally passed over, with Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela, Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox, Colombia and Vini Fantini-Selle Italia those chosen for the first Grand Tour of the year.

Katusha’s Joaquim Rodríguez finished second in the 2012 Giro, winning two stages and the points jersey, an went on to win the WorldTour for the second time in three years, while the team also finished second in the WorldTour team rankings.

The wildcards were awarded on January 8th, but on February 15th Katusha successfully appealed to the Court for Arbitration in Sport Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS). The Russian team was officially been named as the 19th ProTeam, meaning that it would automatically be invited to all WorldTour events, which complicated matters for those events that had already issued wildcards.

This was particularly acute for the Giro d’Italia, with the 22 invited teams of nine riders taking the expected peloton size to 198. To add Katusha to the teams list would mean either reducing the team size to eight, taking back one of the four wildcard invitations issued, or breaking UCI regulation 2.2.002, which limits the peloton size to 200.

On April 2nd the UCI officially granted RCS Sport special dispensation to breach the regulation, however, and so it has confirmed that Katusha will be the 23rd team in a peloton of 207 riders. This is not without precedent, as the Giro also had an oversize peloton in the 2011 edition, with exemption granted due to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.